Press Kit

Overview

Block Interval is a decentralized creative studio focusing on the very best in storytelling told through virtual reality, graphic novels, film and more. Block Interval is currently in fundraising mode.

HISTORY

Early History

In 2000, Daniel David Allen and Stephane Philippe-Auguste met each other on a small college campus in Pensacola Florida. Their shared love of gaming and computers led to a strong friendship. They became roommates and would stand as best men in each others weddings.

Stephane and Dan

Dan and Stephane decided to join forces to do what they'd always dreamed of doing- create an indie video game. Dan had spent the past decade in the design field, and the prior year working at Discovery as a game architect. Stephane had spent decades building and tinkering with computers and phones.

On August 17th, 2014- Dan had an idea for a game about a cosmonaut that crashed deep beneath foreign alien waves. A week later, he brought the idea to Stephane and together they created what is now known as Life of Lon.

Recent

Dan has functioned as the lead writer and creative director throughout the entirety of Life of Lon. Life of Lon was started in August of 2014, and had originally been planned as a 2D sidescroller for the PC. The lead developer on the early version was Ivor Grenac. Dave Nelson, owner of Alleycat Recording in Warrenville Illinois came on board to lead music and sound. Claudio Rodval and Matt Vince brought character art into the mix, and Courtland Winslow painted gorgeous backdrops and environment concepts. Alisa Kober rounded the group out doing animation. Block Interval was alive, funded by Dan alone, and it pushed forward to build Life of Lon. The project progressed for 4 months, but due to budget slowdown had to be put on hold in January of 2015. During the hold, Block Interval worked on another game called Transience. Despite being successfully greenlit, Ivor left Block Interval to pursue other projects. With no lead developer, Transience was put on indefinite hold.

This was the time when virtual reality seemed like it could be a viable platform upon which to build the reborn Life of Lon.

Courtland Winslow, Dave Nelson, and Alisa Kober

Rebooting meant a great deal of change for Block Interval. While Claudio didn't reprise his role as character artist, the rest of the team was excited for the new possibilities. Dave was back as lead of music and sound, Courtland transitioned from environment artist to lead artist, and Alisa returned for more animation. The entire team was enthusiastic about this new direction, and joining them was newcomer Darryl Dempsey- who had already released experiences such as Therapeutic Heights for the Oculus Rift.

This time around, the team began investing their own hours into the game. This was becoming a passion project.

A few months into development on the Life of Lon VR reboot, Dave began taking on more development responsibilities. He ultimately took on the mantle of lead developer in addition to his already ambitious music and sound work.

In April of 2016, Block Interval attended the VR World Congress in Bristol, UK as well as The Silicon Valley VR Expo in San Jose, California. The plan was to find investors who shared their vision and wanted to aid in seeing it through. During SVVR, a number of industry leaders dropped by to try the demo. Life of Lon was met with a great deal of praise. Through it, Block Interval established a number of new relationships and is on the road to funding.